I’m officially ready for marriage.
Well, technically, not necessarily mentally. Kelvin and I went to the county clerk-recorder office (located near SJ Japantown) to pick up our marriage license, something I’ve been told is kinda important for getting married. To get a marriage license, you need to bring yourself, your future spouse, a filled-out application, IDs, and $79 and go wait in line. If you’ve got another $80 to blow and are in a rush, you can get actually get married while you’re at it. Rings and cameras just an additional $10 each!
It wasn’t very busy at 1:30 on a Friday afternoon. I saw a two or three people go up to windows alone, which was curious since I thought you needed two people to get anything done. There were also two lesbian couples in front of us, probably moving things along with the upcoming vote on Proposition 8. (Interestingly enough, there was also a sticker against prop 8 stuck under the “Line begins here” sign. I wonder if the clerk knew about that. btw, PLEASE VOTE! Especially NO on prop 8.) The wait wasn’t too long, especially since some people in the line didn’t have their applications ready and had to go to the back of the line and fill it out. I don’t really get why they put the applications in the front of the line and not towards the back, but whatever.
When it got to our turn, we gave the clerk lady at the window our application, which she typed onto the marriage license. She gave us some information sheets, including a fun health pamphlet called “Your Future Together” which talks about all the possible ways your new life together can bring you misery (i.e. domestic violence, STDs, genetic disorders). We paid the $79 fee and got a receipt (you know, for returns or exchanges :P ). We had to raise our right hand and confirm the application information was correct. Then we were told to sign the marriage license, at which point she recommended that we take pictures since it’s the only time we’d sign anything.
Kelvin signs…
And then I sign. I broke their “stay-inside-the-box” rule…
hopefully my marriage will still be valid :P
And we were done! I was surprised at how easy it is to get a marriage license; you don’t even need to give your social security number. Now we just need to find a witness and somebody who’s ordained, and then we’re REALLY done.
New thing I learned today: You can pay an extra $4 to get a confidential marriage license, where the record is not public and only the people getting married can get copy of the marriage certificate (except by court order). For a confidential license, you can only get married at the clerk recorder’s office, and both parties must already be living together.
I’m excited to witness it!!! go go go!
I think Meiah’s mum was disappointed by the whole process. She obviously expected it to be a grand procession and had my brother in law ready with the camcorder to tape the whole procession… and then it was over. ;)
Hope all goes well with the wedding! Swing by HK if you guys ever get the chance. Seeing all of Kelvin’s wacky faces in your bachelor/bachelorette party diary reminds me that I haven’t ever gotten smashed with him… except… that one time on my birthday when he made me buy my own liquor. ;)
Ha! Cheng and I stood in that same exact place to get our marriage license too! Congrats on getting married. Beautiful wedding!!!